“Take the reins, Miss Anne,” said Royal; “just take the reins.” So saying, he passed the reins into Miss Anne’s hands on the back seat, and sprang out of the carryall. He ran forward, and began to march up towards the oxen with a bold and determined look, brandishing his whip, and shouting to them, to make them stop.
The oxen slackened their pace a little, but did not seem much inclined to stop. They, however, turned a little to one side. Royal then concluded to let them go on, but to drive them away out to one side, so that they should not run against the carryall. So he flourished his whip at them, and turned them off more and more. The oxen shook their heads at Royal, but ran on, until, at length, one wheel of the cart passed over a large stone by the side of the road, while the other sank into a hole, and the cart upset. The great rack tumbled off upon one side, and the oxen, having come up against the fence, stopped. Just at this moment, the man came running up to them.
“I am very much obliged to you for stopping my steers,” said the man. “They are as wild as a pair of colts.”
Royal looked at the oxen, and observed that they were quite small.
“I have been to get this hay cart,” continued the man, “and, while I stepped into the blacksmith’s shop a minute, they got away, and undertook to run home. I am much obliged to you for stopping them.”
“But I am sorry your cart is broken,” said Royal.
“O, it is not broken,” replied the man, “only the rack has come off. I can put it right on again,—if you would be so good as to stop and help me a moment, about backing the oxen.”
Just then the man happened to see a boy coming up the road, and he immediately said,—
“Ah, no; here comes Jerry. Jerry!” said he, in a louder voice, calling to the boy, “come here quick, and help me get this rack on.”
Then Royal, finding that he was no longer needed, got into the carryall again, took the reins from Miss Anne’s hands, and drove on.